The Center and the Alabama Dance Council are proud to co-present Ballet Memphis as the guest company-in-residence for the 2018 Alabama Dance Festival. Ballet Memphis is now in its 30th season and is recognized for its close ties to the region’s rich musical and literary heritage through dance, production and training.

The production of I Am includes four commissioned pieces came from founding artistic director Dorothy Gunther Pugh’s ideas regarding, as she says, “giving voice to the voiceless.” The encompassing title I Am is inspired in part by the iconic “I Am A Man” signs held by striking sanitation workers in Memphis in 1968. None of the pieces are specifically about that moment in Memphis history but reflect the larger, related idea that everyone matters, that dignity and kindness must ultimately speak louder than the superficial noises and dark currents all around.

“The climate that Ballet Memphis brings to the stage is unorthodox, peculiar, fresh and large-spirited. The mood blowing through all of these dances is generous, imaginatively breaking rules.” – The New York Times

I Am
Choreographer: Steven McMahon
I Am A Child
Choreographer: Julia Adam
I Am A Man: Grace and Dignity
Choreographer: Reggie Wilson
I Am A Woman: Moult
Choreographer: Gabrielle Lamb